Veteran Crypt of Hearts

Welcome to yet another basic guide for Veteran Dungeons. This time we are stepping up to explore one of the toughest Dungeons – the VR 12 Crypt of Hearts!

As always, the guide will be split by each boss and the bold writing will be the mechanic and beneath will be the ‘tactics’.

Boss 1 – Ibelgast

There 2 healer adds with the boss. Other adds also spawn during the fight

Tank run in and aggro the boss and the right healer. Tank stand by and focus on right healer, interrupting any heal attempts.

Rest of group focus target the left healer, once dead kill the right one. Everyone but tank should stand a good distance from the boss. (Melee DPS will just have to role into the tank after killing adds).

As adds spawn, prioritise killing the healers, then the other casters (Broodnurses) who will summon Flesh Atronachs if left alone. Then kill anything else, then back on boss.

If coordinated, the tank can move around to one of the healer add spawns and repeat the strategy you did on pull (interrupting one healer while team kills the other). Depending on how well the team works together, this may be advantageous, or can make things more difficult, so it will be your call to try move or just stay and keep boss busy.

Boss casts a Donut AOE.

Tank stay next to boss so that you are safely in the donut hole. It is very important you keep taunting the boss as letting him run free can be a real pain.

DPS should be far enough away to be outside of the donut ring. If adds are dead, Melee DPS should be standing by tank in the hole.

Boss casts Negate Magic.

As Tank, Break Free of Negate Magic as soon as it is cast – the main irritation of the Negate Magic is that when trying to interrupt a healer, you will first Break Free if you have not already (that is why you should Break Free immediately).

As everyone else is outside the Donut AOE, they should also be safely away from the Negate Magic.

Boss does Heavy Attack (Uppercut).

As tank you really need to block this, the hit won’t kill you outright, but the knockback inconveniently knocks you down right in the Donut AOE which more often than not, will finish you off, leaving you as a bloody Donut Glaze.

Boss 2 – Ruzozuzalpamaz

Boss casts lightning streaks out from body.

Tank try keep boss turned from the team so only you get hit. Doesn’t do too much damage to you. Being at max melee range should reduce how much lightning hits you.

Boss Cocoons a player.

When cocooned, you cannot do anything, A teammate needs to run up to you and use the synergy button to free you.

Giant ground hard hitting AOE circlethat stalks a player.

Call out if you are the one targeted, then start running/rolling away from the AOE that chases you. Try pick a direction that does not go past other players (Bonus points for NOT running past a cocooned player as they will be helpless and die horribly).

Throughout the fight lots of small spider adds.

Run to the tank to ensure they are all gathered up and AOE everything down. Be quick because you don’t want the AOE spawning on you all. Doing it this way you want to try avoid running the same direction when AOE spawns.

Alternatively you can all stay separate and DPS whatever spiders you have on you down, however, while they do not do massive damage, there are quite a few and the damage can build up on you, however, you risk not killing them fast enough.

The spiders snare! So if they are not dead when the chasing AOE circle spawns, it can be very difficult to escape it, this is why I prefer to gather up and AOE down.

Boss 3 – Chamber Guardian

Big skeleton which has Heavy Attack and also shoots out a Spectre wave which fears.

Tank block the Heavy attack and also block when he starts casting as if unblocked the cast will have you run scared.

Tank keep boss facing away from rest of team so that they are not hit by the fear wave.

Small Skeleton adds spawn throughout the fight, most these are ranged.

AOE these mobs down otherwise you will be overwhelmed.

Tank try to keep moving boss close to adds so that he can be hit by the AOE. Alternatively, tank just stay where you are while the team kills adds then refocus on boss.

Boss 4 – Ilambris Amalgam

2 Draemora, one blue, one red – lightning and fire based damage, lightning is melee but does AOEs all over the place, fire is a caster and has a strong ‘heat wave’ fire trail attack.

Tank run up and aggro both.

DPS choose one and focus damage it (once one gets low health, both will stand on the small fire pile and disappear).

Big Bone Construct spawns where the 2 adds were, uses AOE frontal cone attack, also a 360 degree AOE stomp which has knockdown. The 2 mobs from earlier also respawn as skeletons.

Tank aggro and turn boss so other do not have to worry about cone attack, try roll out of the ground stomp, though you get little warning, so may just have to accept taking the hit. Tank also aggro the other 2 mobs if up to it.

While the adds are up, Lightning AOEs will constantly occur around the room, will also be some fire AOE.

Keep on your toes, keep moving around – be careful to not run in front of boss and accidently being hit by cone attack.

DPS either focus down each add, or AOE the adds and boss if Tank is keeping aggro on all (my preference). If focus target, I suggest the blue one first. The sooner blue is dead, the sooner the AOE phase stops.

Once adds are dead, small ‘typical’ skeleton adds spawn. This phase has ‘Rain of Fire AOEs’ and the small adds also have AOEs around them.

DPS kill the small adds asap. Tank can either ignore adds and let DPS take care of them, or taunt them and keep them close to boss so they can be AOE’d down (again, my preference, but can be dangerous due to all the AOE).

Keep moving to avoid the rain of fire, it hits hard. May find it easier to run towards back end of room as you have more space to move around. (if you do this, tank will want to drag the boss towards that area in order to keep in heal range)

Note: You may want to drag boss to far end of room straight away and fight that end for more space (we don’t, but it probably makes sense to).

Boss ‘Enrages’ around 20%, at this point, rain of fire, lightning AOEs, both types of skeleton adds spawn.

At this point focus on Execute phase on boss, leave the adds alone. Tank may want to aggro all he can handle to make it easier on others.

Boss 5 – Mezeluth

This boss is on a slightly raised circular platform, kind of a big donut hole. Outside of this is the donut itself, ringed in by a wall. The boss does not move so attack him on the platform.

Boss has a hard hitting spell he casts periodically, this will create fire ground AOE.

Easy to interrupt so do so. Don’t panic if you fail, it won’t kill you, just move away from the ground AOE that forms.

Boss sucks in all the players and puts big ugly AOE circles round each one. Some AOEs also spawn on the donut itself. The AOE will explode and knock you down.

‘Don’t cross the beams!’ If you stand around and overlap with other players, the explosion will kill you. If you run away from each other but into the AOE that is on the donut, it will kill you! Basically, it seems the circles slightly overlapping won’t kill you, but if they overlap to the extent that you are actually standing in both, you die.

Easiest way to deal with this mechanic is with a bit of preparation. Before engaging the boss, decide which direction each of you will go. When facing the boss we decide who goes left, right, forward and backwards. This ensures you do not accidently go the same way as a teammate.

You can get away from each other without the need to roll (unless you are slow to react) so wherever possible, avoid doing so – otherwise you risk rolling into one of the static AOEs.

Boss 6 – Nerien’eth

This boss appears when you try grab the sword in the middle of the room. The sword sits on a large circular platform, around the room are 3 other small platforms.

Boss does a powerful attack which shoots out a skull at a random player, doing high damage and knocking them down.

Either the team needs to pay attention to the boss animations and get their block up! It is basically a fairly quick heavy attack wind up – there is not much time to react to this attack and it packs a hell of a punch (if you have less than 2k then this will likely kill you).

Alternatively, and the tactic I use – tank calls out ‘block’ when he sees it coming (as tank is in the bosses face, it is easiest for them to notice the animation)

Boss causes AOE to spawn on each player (these have a chain graphic which spawns in the middle of the AOE, looks like the AOEs spawned by Lich’s) the AOE explodes within a few seconds, doing high damage. He does this 3 or 4 times in a row.

If you are spread out, you can easily walk out of the AOE before it explodes, you only need to roll out if you are slow to react.

If you are clumped together, then you will likely need to roll out as multiple AOEs will be around and so slightly wider radius to escape.

Boss teleports to a player and does very large 360 degree AOE around him, this hits hard and knocks down.

If the boss ports close to you, run quick and roll, or if you have the stamina then roll twice to get to safety. For everyone else, should easily be avoid with a single roll.

As tank, assuming you have aggro, boss usually just spawns on you – depending on stamina supply you may find it easier to just block and take the hit.

Boss teleports to one of the smaller platforms and spawns two spirits which turn into wraiths. He then teleports again and does his 360 AOE. Likely will also do his powerful skull shot.

Tank aggro both Wraiths, team DPS them down. Be ready for the follow up AOE from the boss which will occur while you are fighting the Wraiths. Also be ready for the powerful skull attack.

My personal preference as tank is to taunt both wraiths and the boss to keep them all close so the team can AOE them down. But you will take a lot of hits including the 360 degree AOE (can also be hard on Stamina if using 1h taunt on all 3 and then blocking).

Boss rinse and repeats the above until 35%, he then grabs the sword in middle of room. He then has heavy attacks and randomly hits a player throughout the phase.

Tank be sure to keep up the aggro because boss hits hard and has a power attack which will kill someone if they fail to block.

Non-Tanks be ready to block when the boss suddenly ports to you and stabs at you.

Ground AOES drop throughout the fight.

Just don’t stand in them.

Boss stuns everyone then charges to a random player, lifting them off their feet and draining health. Boss also has a damage shield during this phase and AOEs continue to appear.

The victim needs to use the synergy ‘Resist Necrosis’ which appears on screen.

Everyone else go full out DPS, this is a race (that includes healer and tank!). If you do not break the shield, the victim dies, so keep on damaging and avoid the AOEs – as time spent being healed is time the healer is not doing DPS.

If you fail to break the shield in time, the boss heals a bit, but otherwise, don’t panic – you can rez and keep going. (First time we did this we failed to ever do enough damage to save our teammates)

For the Undaunted achievement, you need to keep 4 wraiths alive when the boss goes into the final phase (at 35%) depending on your DPS, this means between 45-50% you want to stop killing the wraiths when summoned and gather them up in preparation for the 35% stage, then AOE them down along with boss.

So, that ends the Crypt of Hearts guide and indeed all VR 1-12 dungeons. I hope some of you found this helpful, as always if you have your own strategies on the bosses, feel free to share!

(If you are on the EU server and part of the Daggerfall Covenant Faction, feel free to contact @asteldian in game if you are wanting help running Veteran dungeons – any role, any class is welcome)